3 Key Criteria on Choosing your Business Chinese Trainer
1. Certifications & Qualifications
When it comes to learning a language as an adult, not anybody from China can teach you, especially business Chinese. You need a professional adult educator who is trained in not just adult education but also translation and interpretation.
Professional adult educators need to be certified in training, facilitation and assessment. Business Chinese Language trainers have to possess relevant business background in the relevant topics.
In Singapore, corporate adult trainers need to be ACTA certified. The WSQ Advanced Certificate in Training and Assessment (ACTA) is a competency-based certification. ACTA certified trainers are professional in their training methodology.
Other than ACTA certification, professional trainers are usually also certified in the fields of their expertise. One of such certifications for Chinese language trainers include the internationally recognised CTCSOL (Certificate for Teachers of Chinese to Speakers of Other Languages) which is administered by China Hanban. It is just like the ACCA for professional accountants.
Besides certifications for professional trainers, your trainer should also possess the right qualifications. At FinChinese, our trainers are not just certified in training and facilitation but also qualified in finance, insurance, economics and translation
2. Relevant Industry Experience
On top of all the necessary qualifications, experienced Business Chinese trainers should be in constant contact with the relevant industries through various channels.
For instance, our FinChinese trainers have worked in the insurance, real estate, banking, accounting and training industries for years thereby bringing to the learners an abundance of real-life case studies. Many of our adult learners have given us positive feedbacks that real life examples and practices helped them to retain their knowledge effectively.
3. Strong Professional Bilingualism
In Singapore, approximately 70% of the local Chinese Singaporeans speak English and use English at home, in school and at work. This means that majority of them are not equipped professionally in Chinese and are very likely going to face difficulties when speaking with their China clients and counterparts. In fact, that is why there is a rising trend of local Singaporeans learning Business Chinese observed in recent years.
Throughout our 12 years in teaching Business Chinese to our local Singaporean learners, we realised that many of them continued learning with FinChinese because our trainers are able to effectively bridge their English way of thinking to the Chinese logic and syntax.
For example, when it comes to English sentences, descriptions are usually at the end of each sentence, while for Chinese sentences on the other hand, the descriptions are always in front of the head noun. This difference between Chinese and English is the main reason why English speaking adult learners find it so hard to understand those Chinese legal clauses. Our trainers are able to explain very clearly how to interpret each part of the sentence and how to convert between both languages because our trainers are also experienced translators.
